


Smiles and Tears

by demonladys



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Engagement, Established Relationship, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon, Same-Sex Marriage, Wedding Planning, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-27 22:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15034247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonladys/pseuds/demonladys
Summary: While preparing for the wedding, Misaki reminisces about how she got engaged to Kokoro.





	1. Pollyanna

**Author's Note:**

> misakoko wedding fic i wrote on complete impulse. happy pride month!

“I know! We should have the wedding in Paris!” Kokoro’s voice echoed through the Tsurumaki mansion dining room. 

It was nostalgic, Misaki thought. How many hours did she spend in this room following those dummies around, making sure they didn’t start any fires or get anyone killed? She let a tiny smile slip. Kokoro bursting out with very-definitely-bad ideas was something she didn’t think she’d miss like this. Though, it was a bit lonely now without Hagumi’s energy, Kaoru’s incoherent ramblings, and Kanon’s occasional attempts to talk sense into them.

“I don’t think anyone else could attend if we did that.”

“Well, what about London?! We could get married in front of Big Ben!”

“Same problem there. Can’t we just do something simple…?” The idea of an extravagant wedding near a famous landmark might appeal to the average bride-to-be. And yeah, the Tsurumaki family could easily fund it. But Misaki hated it. She wanted a simple wedding, maybe even no ceremony at all. Her idea was having a couple friends around to celebrate the occasion, not making a show out of it. Anything Kokoro decided on was going to be an extravagant display of the Tsurumaki family’s wealth, and that’s not to mention all the wealthy and powerful elites who might show up against her wishes.

“Oh! Let’s have it on my cruise ship!” Five years since they started dating, Kokoro still had that same take-on-the-world and do-anything-that-sounds-fun attitude. Despite Misaki’s outward cynicism toward Kokoro’s impulses, there was something she found endearing about a girl who could always smile no matter what. Well, almost always.

“That’s a little more reasonable, I guess.” Ever the more down-to-earth one, Misaki expected her girlfriend’s wild suggestions for their upcoming wedding. She had already made sure to talk to The Suits and request they let her pick the venue and guests. Her mission now was just damage control to make sure Kokoro was on board, too. Jeez, dating a girl with full-time bodyguards-turned-babysitters can be rough. “Hey, I have an idea, actually.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Why don’t we have it here in town? You know, at that venue Kaoru modeled for.”

“Oh yeah! She got married there twice, didn’t she?”

“Uh, just once, actually.” In spite of her efforts, she knew convincing Kokoro that Kaoru didn’t really get married to Saya was a lost cause. She tried for years, and even attending Chisato and Kaoru’s wedding with her last year didn’t solve the problem. Really, it actually made things harder to explain. At some point, she gave up and told her that Kaoru and Saya had gotten a divorce.

“Hmm… Yeah! Let’s do it there! Let’s make that place famous for hosting weddings for Hello, Happy World!” That wasn’t exactly going to happen, considering the band wasn’t active anymore, but whatever. Anything to stop Kokoro from holding their wedding on the Eiffel Tower.

Kokoro insisted on helping Misaki make the invitations. Misaki allowed it, as long as Kokoro didn’t invite anyone besides school friends. The Suits brought in a huge stack of pre-made invitations for them to sign once they finish the guest list, placing it on the table in front of them. Kokoro wanted to make unique invitations for every guest. Misaki thought it was a nice idea, but had to overrule it for the sake of simplicity.

Misaki wrote down each guest she could think to invite. Kanon, Hagumi, and Kaoru were the obvious first choices. Realizing Kaoru would probably prefer not to show up alone, she added Chisato’s name next to Kaoru’s. Kokoro shouted, “Add Hina! She was my buddy from astronomy club! And Eve!” She added Hina and Eve to the list. Might as well invite all of Pastel Palettes. As she penciled in the names of Poppin’ Party members, Kokoro interrupted. “Have you picked a maid of honor yet?”

“Yeah, I asked Kanon and she said she’d do it.” Kanon was the lowest-effort choice, considering she was Misaki’s roommate now. She was important, though, being the one to protect Misaki’s sanity for years. It’d be nice to do something in return, she thought. “What about you, Kokoro?” Though Kokoro got a lot of attention due to both her family and her personality (and the antics that came along with it), Misaki could never really tell who Kokoro considered her best friend. She didn’t have the slightest clue what to expect.

“Michelle!”

“What?”

“I want Michelle to be my maid of honor!”

“But… I’m Michelle. I don’t know if the suit would even fit me now, anyway. And how are we going to get married if I have to play your maid of honor?”

“Misaki, what are you talking about? You’re not Michelle, you’re my girlfriend! I’m not marrying her, I’m marrying you!” Really? Kokoro really never figured out Misaki was the one inside the suit? Misaki recalled the one time she swore Kokoro figured it out. The name Michelle had rarely came up since they got engaged.

Almost too quickly, The Suits walked back into the room and guided Misaki out of the room into the hallway. “Misaki-sama, it seems your planning has hit a roadblock,” the long-haired one said.

She yawned, “Am really I gonna have to dress up as Michelle to my own wedding…?”

The lady with straight bangs started, “Do not worry, we see the problem here as well. We wish to find an alternate solution, one that will please both you and Kokoro-sama. We know she’d want you to be happy, especially on such an important day. But Michelle means a lot to her, so we can’t let her down.”

Misaki sighed. “I guess you’re right. So, what do you propose?”

“We would like to find someone else to play the part. Do you know of anyone who might be able to?”

Misaki tried to think of all the people coming to the wedding. Which guests would Kokoro not mind missing the wedding if they had to dress up in a mascot suit instead? She didn’t want to make anyone have to do her old job for her. “Not off the top of my head.”

“We will look into finding a suitable replacement, then.”

“Ah… fine. But…” Misaki pulled out her phone and scrolled through her photo albums. She found a picture from two years prior, a selfie she took with Kokoro on the night they got engaged. Kokoro’s smile was huge, though the tears on her cheeks were obvious in the picture. Misaki’s smile was a lot more subtle. She remembered how happy she had felt when Kokoro accepted the ring, even if her smile didn’t show it. “Does she really not remember it was me?”


	2. All That I Needed

It happened two years before. The days after high school graduation... that was the first time Misaki had known a Kokoro who couldn’t smile.

“Misaki…” It was the evening after the graduation ceremony and the school was totally cleared out. Still in her uniform, Kokoro sobbed as she stared at the school in the moonlight. “We failed, didn’t we? We couldn’t make the world smile.”

“Um,” Misaki said, not really sure how to deal with a girl who suddenly realized her impossible dream hadn’t come to fruition. “I guess not.” She let out a light chuckle, trying to be reassuring. Placing one hand inside her hoodie pocket, she ran her fingers over a small box inside. “But we made a lot of people smile on the way. Isn’t that worth something?”

Kokoro’s tears continued, though she didn’t answer. Misaki stepped closer to her and placed her own arms around her. She’d never seen her like this. Even as Kokoro buried her head into Misaki’s shoulders, her crying only got louder. Misaki hugged her tight. She was lost, wasn’t she?

After a couple minutes, Misaki let go. “Hang on a second,” she told her before running toward a set of bushes parallel to the school’s gate. She whispered into them, “Hey, you guys in here?”

The short-haired suit lady moved some branches and peeked through the leaves. “Does Kokoro-sama want to get inside?” Over the years, Misaki had picked up on most of The Suits’ hiding spots. It was convenient to know where they were in case of an emergency, though this was the first time she really had any sort of ‘emergency.’

“No, I think she’s just taking it in still.” She looked back at her girlfriend, who was staring at the ground and sniffling. It was like watching the aftermath of a first breakup. “She’s… she’ll be okay, I think.”

She ran back to Kokoro and took her hand. When she saw her face, there was no life in it. It was gloomier than the darkest corner of a haunted castle. Somehow, a girl who seemed to have unlimited energy was empty. Holding onto her hand, she guided her to the nearby park and sat down beside her on a bench. She tried not to stare too much at that face whenever she looked back, but it was difficult.

“Hey, Kokoro.” She squeezed her hand tight.

“Misaki…” The tears wouldn’t stop pouring from Kokoro’s eyes. Like raindrops in a dry sky, that face never looked so hopeless.

“I love you.”

She felt Kokoro clinging against her shoulder again. “Please don’t let go, Misaki…!”

She moved her other arm around her for another hug, patting her on the back lightly. “Sorry. I won’t this time.”

***

They replayed that scenario for a couple evenings in a row. Each night, Misaki found Kokoro in front of the school in shambles, then guided her to the park to comfort her. It seemed like Kokoro stopped smiling at all. Like she forgot how. At one time, Misaki saw that smile as a source of annoyance and exhaustion. She never knew how much she’d miss it until it went away.

Lying in bed, she called Kanon for advice. “I never thought this would happen. I hate seeing her like this.”

“What do you think caused all this?”

“She’s probably upset about the band.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah.” She fiddled with the tiny box and turned onto her side. It was clear from Kanon’s dejected tone that she didn’t have any solutions.

She knew it wasn’t graduation itself, but the ending that came with graduation. Hello, Happy World was over, with all its members looking toward their own path to the future.

In the year prior, the band saw its share of difficulties. Kaoru and Kanon were still members, but university meant they only had so much free time and couldn’t attend practice regularly. Misaki managed to get Tae and Saya to fill in as backup guitarist and drummer respectively, but they had to come up with new gags along with that. Tae came up with her own spin on the ‘bunny-in-a-hat’ magic trick: Kokoro takes off her hat and flips it around; the audience expects to see a rabbit emerge from it, but instead, it’s Tae herself holding a rabbit. Tae even managed to steal some of Kaoru’s fans with… well, her own unique way of flirting, which didn’t rely on flowery words and majestic quotes, but on actually asserting herself over other girls. Misaki was surprised how many “little kittens” converted to “little bunnies,” but was mostly annoyed by how often she’d have to pull the guitarist away from seduced fangirls she had brought backstage.

Regardless, now that everyone was graduating, it meant there’d hardly be time for any of them to practice like they used to. The band would become inactive. Kokoro knew that. But maybe she didn’t want to accept it, or maybe she wasn’t ready for it to end. Making the whole world smile was an impossible task.

“I wish I could help. Do you want me to stop by? I can see about visiting this weekend.”

“She might like that, yeah.”

“Oh! Why don’t you try to surprise her?”

“Surprise her?”

“I bet she misses Michelle, too.”

“Ah…” It had been a few months since Misaki last wore the outfit thanks to the lack of concerts. She didn’t miss it, but she couldn’t deny Kanon had a valid point. She sighed.

That night, Misaki wore a tank top under her hoodie to give her skin more breathing room. They repeated their usual routine: Misaki found Kokoro crying in front of the school, tried to comfort her, then led her to the nearby park. Once Misaki sat Kokoro down on the bench, she left her hoodie next to her. “Wait right here,” she said, and ran off to a nearby tree. Behind it, she met The Suits, who helped her change into the Michelle costume. It was stuffy, she couldn’t run nearly as fast on her way back to the bench. When she got back, she tapped Kokoro’s head with her paw.

A smile almost formed on Kokoro’s lips. “Michelle!” She shouted back to the tree, “Misaki, look! Michelle is here!” They were weak shouts, but it was progress.

“Don’t worry, Kokoro~! Michelle is here~!” Misaki tried to make her voice as cute-sounding as possible to cheer her up.

“Hooray! I missed you, Michelle!” She jumped into the mascot’s arms and gave her a big hug. Misaki recoiled inside the costume.

“I missed you too, Kokoro~! Misaki told me you were glum lately. What’s troubling you~?”

“Oh…” She could make out Kokoro’s frown from inside the costume. Whoops, shouldn’t have said that

“Dammit, it was working...”

“Michelle, I’m sad. I wanted to make the world smile, but now I can’t even find the strength to smile.”

“O-oh!” Before getting too down on herself, Misaki gathered herself quickly. There was break in her cutesy voice, but she switched back mid-sentence. This was her chance. “You always make me smile, Kokoro~! What’s stopping you~?”

“I miss everyone! There’s a hole in my heart where Kanon and Kaoru were, now there’s one for Hagumi and Misaki, too. I don’t want to see everyone leave… I want to be with them and stay together forever!” She flailed her arms aimlessly, as if trying to figure out how to say it. “I… don’t want to be alone again.”

Misaki gave Kokoro a big hug before setting her down. “Don’t worry, Kokoro~!” She pulled Michelle’s head off of the costume, revealing her own face. She spoke again, in her normal tone now. “Because I’ll never leave you.”

For the first time, the sight of Misaki’s head on Michelle’s body didn’t prompt a freakout on Kokoro’s end. With a grin, Kokoro threw her arms around the torso and tackled her to the ground. “I was gonna say you hug just like her, Michelle.”

“I’ve been telling you for years,” Misaki sighed from beneath. “It’s me in here. And I won’t leave. Agh!” Kokoro’s weight pressed down and started to crush her. “H-hey, could you get off and help me out of this thing?”

***

Misaki rested in the grass, face-up and side-by-side with Kokoro. She stared at the spring moon, a cool breeze ran across her face. She gripped Kokoro’s hand while swaying grass brushed against her legs.

“Misaki?” There was restraint in Kokoro’s voice. Her speech was warm and relaxed, like thin steam rising from fresh tea.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s start a new band. It can be just us two.”

It was a nice wish, skipping out on university and dedicating their lives to making the world smile all over again. It was unrealistic, like all of Kokoro’s ideas. But just this once, Misaki didn’t find it annoying. “I don’t think I’d wanna DJ again. What would I play then?”

“Why don’t we both do vocals?”

“Like an acapella duo? I guess I wouldn’t mind that.” She thought back to the day she got hired to be Michelle. Back then, she knew better than to get involved with Tsurumaki Kokoro. While she waited for the manager, she watched her free-spirited classmate singing her heart out all by herself. Kokoro seemed to be having fun back then. She never realized how lonely the girl really was.

Kokoro took a deep breath and exhaled. She sang softly to the moon, “If you don’t have any courage, I’ll give you mine. With my magic words, sing…”

Misaki closed her eyes. Lost in a trance of Kokoro’s voice, she let herself join in. In tandem with Kokoro, she sang, “Happiness, Happy Magical♪” Kokoro’s hand tightened around her own.

“If you wish for it, anything can come true. The things you find fun, enjoy them! We are this world’s smiling face!”

As she opened her eyes, she heard Kokoro giggling with joy. She sat up and turned toward her. Her cheeks were covered in sparkling tears stretched out across a radiant smile. It was familiar, but brand new. She saw a different side of her girlfriend, one nobody else had seen before.

She pulled Kokoro’s hand to help her sit up. She gave a nervous laugh and felt her own hand shaking. She reached it into her hoodie pocket and grasped the tiny box. “H-hey, Kokoro…”

“Hm?”

She took a deep breath while repeating lines in her head. When she finished exhaling, Kokoro was staring in anticipation. _“Ah, there’s no time. Just gotta improvise,”_ she thought. She spoke with hesitation, “W-why don’t we do something together that’s better than starting a band?”

“Oh? Like what? A tennis team? Oh! Or maybe tag team wrestling! Or I know! Let’s become mecha pilots!”

Misaki couldn’t help but laugh at the suggestions, glad to see that wild imagination running at lightspeed again. “No, even better than those.”

Kokoro leaned forward, her eyes widened in amazement. “Something better than being a mecha pilot?!”

Misaki pulled her hand out of her pocket and showed Kokoro the box. She felt her face redden when she snapped the top open to reveal a silver ring with the letters ‘HHW’ engraved around the outside. Those suit ladies did a great job with that addition. “We could spend our lives together. If you want.”

Misaki watched Kokoro scoot closer and grab the ring. Surprisingly, she actually knew the correct finger to slide it onto. Kokoro’s eyes filled with light and teardrops flowed down her cheeks again. Her smile grew enormous, filled with awe and bliss. In that moment, Misaki lost track of everything around her. The smile emitted a kind of enchanting energy that made it feel like a dream, one she’d be fine with never waking up from. For just a moment, Kokoro was her world, the only thing that mattered. And she just made the whole world smile. She smiled back, though she couldn’t match it in size or power.


	3. Because I Love You

On the morning of the wedding, Misaki couldn’t take her eyes off of an old Hello, Happy World poster in her room. Reminiscing about that day two years ago on which their engagement began, she thought to herself, _“I can’t believe how long it’s been.”_

Kanon knocked on her door. She was already wearing a long, light-blue dress with her face lightened up a bit with makeup. “Misaki, are you ready?”

She looked down at her own clothes. A tank top and shorts. “Dammit, I overslept...” Kanon laughed. She grabbed a brush off of the nightstand and started working through Misaki’s hair.

While Kanon forced the brush through her tangles, Misaki glanced at the poster again. The pink bear gazed back at her. Could Kokoro really have forgotten that night? She didn’t want to believe it, but why else would Kokoro insist on having the mascot at her wedding?

***

Within hours, Misaki found herself in a changing room at the wedding hall with Kanon, once again doing her hair for her. After brushing it out, it was mostly untangled and for once looked nice and soft as opposed to lazily unwashed.

“Here!” Kanon added the finishing touch, the pair of hairclips Misaki always wore on the uncovered side of her hair.

When Misaki gazed into the mirror, she saw her fully-brushed hair flowing easily past the back of her white dress. Her jaw dropped, she could hardly believe it was her. “Amazing… Thank you so much, Kanon.“

Kanon giggled modestly and grinned. “You don’t need to thank me. Stand up.”

She obeyed. watching the lower half of her dress touch the floor as she stood. “This is real, huh?”

“Of course it’s real,” she nodded.

“When I followed you all through the Tsurumaki mansion gate, I just wanted to tell her I was quitting the band, then I could stay far away from her. I never thought I’d end up as her bride. Not that I’m complaining, I guess.”

“You did a lot for all of us, though. We owe you both.”

“Haha, please… I didn’t do anything special.” Misaki tried to brush it off, but she had been helping the group ever since she got them their first gig. It was Kokoro’s wild ideas that drove them, but Misaki was the one who turned ideas into action. Like humming turned to music, Misaki helped more than she’d ever admit.

“It’s almost time.”

From the back of the ceremony area, Kanon guided Misaki with through the aisle. In the stands she spotted Kaoru, who she was surprised to see wearing a light-purple dress instead of a suit. Beside her was Chisato, of course. She looked around and saw Rimi with the rest of Poppin’ Party. She was crying, with Saya patting her on the shoulder. Then she noticed Hagumi, whose hair was now grown to her back. She wore a white dress that was undeniably cute. Misaki also noticed her own younger sister, the only family member of either bride who was invited to the event.

When they reached the end of the aisle, Kanon took a seat in the front row while Misaki stood before everyone. The audience clapped for her, which made her heart flutter. She looked back at the empty registrar. The couple already had their partnership certificate issued, so the wedding was a ceremony to make it feel real. They didn’t need anyone to officiate it, though she knows The Suits could’ve easily had that arranged.

With her eyes fixed down the aisle, she watched Kokoro enter the ceremony hall from the side. She wore fancy wedding dress with floral patterns and had her light blonde hair in a high ponytail. The aura around her was radiant. Misaki could feel it from across the aisle. Holding onto her arm was… Michelle? The pink mascot had her own bridesmaid dress. Her feet squished on the wedding hall’s floor with each step. Whoever was piloting the costume clearly didn’t have much experience, but the bear’s clumsy walk through the aisle at least got a laugh from the guests. She pulled Kokoro behind her, since the aisle wasn’t big enough for them to walk side-by-side. They reached the end and the mascot took her seat next to Kanon while Kokoro stood with Misaki, looking her directly in the eyes.

“Kokoro,” Misaki mumbled, “Who is this?”

“It’s Michelle!” Kokoro responded with a cheerful mumble back.

Duh. “I know, but… who is inside the costume?”

“No one, silly! Michelle is Michelle!”

She turned her vision to the bright fuzzy costume in the front row. The question preoccupied her mind too much for her to continue the ceremony. “Look, I never thought I’d say this, but I know that you know there’s a person in the costume. Please…”

“Aww, can’t you just not worry about it, Misaki?” Kokoro’s head tilted to the side. She had a curious-yet-concerned look in her eyes.

Misaki didn’t want her bride being upset by that curiosity, but it bothered her too much to let it go. “No, I really need to know. I can’t explain it, just…”

Kokoro faced the bear and motioned her up. “Come on out!” Michelle’s head flew off onto the bench. Beneath it, a girl with brown twintails fidgeted with the zipper for the body. She seemed to be high school age, probably not much older than Misaki when she met Kokoro. After a couple seconds, she managed to get the zipper unstuck. She let the suit fall off and posed for the couple in her white tank-top. She cheered, “Happiness! Happy Magical♪”

“W-what?! I don’t believe it…” Was this The Suits’ doing? Or did Hagumi work something out? Either way, she was amazed that the first child Kokoro and the band helped years ago had somehow ended up at the wedding. “You’ve grown a lot, Akari-chan.”

***

Kaoru stood behind the altar and gave a speech. “Prince and princess. Prince and prince. Princess and princess. No matter how these souls meet, the bond they share is beyond fleeting…” Of course, half of what she said made no sense. “The great bard once said, ‘Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.’ Only in the heart can love truly be captured.” Misaki spotted Chisato in the audience with her face buried into her hands in shame.

After at least ten minutes of ramblings and inappropriate quotes (though it felt more like an hour), Kaoru finally said, “And so, today, these two princesses will form a union of love. Princess Okusawa Misaki… and Princess Tsurumaki Kokoro… Will you have each other, in this fleeting moment?” Thinking back to her wedding ceremony research, Misaki realized Kaoru probably improvised the whole speech. She chuckled softly, but hoped her amusement wasn’t too obvious to the audience.

Kokoro shouted, “Yes! I wanna be with Misaki forever!” She couldn’t hold herself back and jumped into her bride’s arms. The bottom of her dress floated over the ground as Misaki caught her.

Misaki blushed and hoped foundation would hide the redness. “...I accept.”

“How fleeting… Very well. I now pronounce you wife and wife.” All of their friends, as well as the suit ladies waiting in the back, clapped as Kaoru stepped down from the registrar. Not used to the attention, Misaki flashed them an awkward smile.

Misaki felt Kokoro leaning into her. Her wife’s face pushed against her own. She worried she might fall backwards on the dress, but used the strength in her legs to balance herself while holding onto Kokoro. She lifted one hand and brushed Kokoro’s bangs aside. She leaned in, closed her eyes, and their lips pressed together. It wasn’t the first or the last kiss, but one she’d remember no matter what. Five years had passed since she got caught up in this girl’s chaotic drive and endless antics. It was hard for her to show her enjoyment upfront, but she had her own ways of doing things. At least a minute passed and their lips refused to break. Misaki didn’t mind if the moment lasted forever. She wondered what sort of adventures Kokoro might bring her on next. She was sure it’d be something unimaginable, with some new impossible goal. She’d get pulled along by that charismatic smile, against her better judgment.

But that’s okay.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
